Day by Dé Ad - What makes a good commercial?

What makes a good commercial?

I was asked, what makes a good commercial, and I had to think for a moment. What does make a good commercial? If we are going to understand what makes a good commercial, first we need to know what a commercial is.

Dictionary.com defines a Radio or Television commercial as “a paid advertisement or promotional announcement.” The first TV commercial advertisment aired on July 1st, 1941 at 2:29. The ad which featured the Bulova Watch Company was purchased for $9 and was 20 seconds long. Today commercials usually run anywhere from 30sec. to 1min. 30 sec. and up until the last decade the only outlet for these spots was television. 

For years commercials, primarily television commercials, have been one of the largest monetary investments for corporations. Companies like Coke will spend a million dollars on a 30 second commercial because of the results they have seen. It is no secret that the main focus of a commercial is to sell something to the consumer, but what makes one stand out from the rest?

There are three things that I think make a commercial stand out from the crowd!

1) The number one thing that establishes a great commercial is Connection, or Relevance. The reason I think this is the most important is because of who views the commercial, the consumer. Connecting is the whole point of a commercial, you are trying to relate to the consumer. Emotionally attach them in some way to your product. 

2) Pick your Genre and stick to it. The reason I say this is because if you are going to relate (step 1) to a twenty something guy, you probably want to add humor in your ad. On the other hand if you want to speak to a 40’s woman, you use a slow motion shot of a baby and talk about how precious life can be with pampers.

3) Production Value will do one of two things to your commercial. If your commercial looks like a bad local used car sales spot, people will associate the product as being a cheaper or less valuable item. Sometimes this is a good thing. Let me explain, I once worked on a commercial for a mexican car insurance company, the commercial was shot in LA but the company was mexican and the target audience the same. They intentionally wanted the commercial to look cheap so people would automatically trust that they have the cheapest rates around. If they can’t afford to make a better commercial they must have low rates. That was their mentality and it paid off.

But, if you want your product to look expensive or if you want to express that you and your company are experts in someway, you want a high production value. Lexus has done a great job at making their cars compare to BMW and Mercedes-Benz by using slick and higher class marketing. They spend more per commercial but when it looks that good, it can entice anyone to buy a car!

So high production value equals expensive or classy looking products, but low production value equals cheap or inexpensive looking products.

All in all I believe that using these steps can help increase the value of your spot and hopefully engage your consumer with your product. Below are a couple of commercials that I have placed in my top 5 because of their creativity and ability to implement these three steps exceptionally well.

What do you think? Leave us a comment or email me directly at: james@vujadestudios.com

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